Sheriff takes heat after prisoner mistakenly released

Indiana convict walks due to paperwork error

February 02, 2013|By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporter

Steven Robbins, 44, is serving a prison sentence for murder in Indiana. (HANDOUT)

A contrite Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart took responsibility Friday for mistakenly letting a man serving 60 years for murder in Indiana walk out of the county jail after a local charge against him was dismissed.

"We let people down, no mistake about it," Dart said in an interview at sheriff's offices in Maywood a day after authorities discovered that Steven Robbins was on the loose. "Our office did not operate the way it should have, clearly."

Robbins remained at large Friday, but authorities are pursuing some promising leads about his whereabouts, Dart said. A $12,000 reward has been raised for information leading to Robbins' capture, the sheriff said.

Meanwhile, the mother of the man slain by Robbins a decade ago during an argument at a party in Indianapolis told the Tribune she hadn't slept since she learned from a victims' rights group about the mix-up that set her son's killer free.

"He murdered my son and got 60 years. Now my son is still dead and he is out walking the street somewhere?" Maye Melton said in a telephone interview. "I'm torn to pieces. ... What's wrong with the system in Illinois?"

Similar mistakes have been made at the county jail over the past decade. In 2009, Jonathan Cooper, who was serving a 30-year prison sentence in Mississippi for manslaughter, was mistakenly freed after prosecutors here dropped sex-related charges against him. In 2003, Juan Alvarez was released from the jail by mistake while facing murder-for-hire charges. He was believed to have fled to his native Mexico.

Dart said he was still trying to sort out how safeguards broke down, but he believed that jail officials never had paperwork identifying Robbins as a convicted murderer when he was brought back from court, leading guards to think he was just another of the 200 or so inmates who are released every day.

Court records show that when Robbins was taken to the Cook County courthouse in Markham on Tuesday — his first stop after being removed from a prison in Michigan City, Ind. — there was at least one sheriff's document with him that made it clear he needed to be returned to Indiana prison officials.

Like other indigent people, Robbins was outfitted with clothing from Goodwill — a long-sleeve brown shirt and brown pants — before being released out the front entrance about 6:25 p.m. Wednesday, Dart said. He also likely was given bus fare.

The chain of events that led to the wrongful release began in 2007, when armed violence and drug possession charges against Robbins were dismissed but a warrant for his arrest wasn't quashed. Last year Cook County sheriff's police noticed the 1992 warrant and sought his extradition. Presiding Criminal Courts Judge Paul Biebel approved the request by an assistant state's attorney, court records show.

What no one apparently realized at the time was that prosecutors had already dropped the charges against Robbins five years earlier after he had written a series of letters from prison telling the court of his 60-year sentence in Indiana.

Why authorities went through with the extradition was the subject of some finger-pointing Friday.

Dart said the warrant for Robbins' arrest should have been quashed in 2007.

"We were able to get an extradition warrant on a case that didn't exist," the sheriff said. "That's the first problem."

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said her office notified the sheriff's office a few weeks ago that the extradition wasn't necessary. But they went ahead anyway, she said.

Dart said the sheriff's office uses an archaic system — entirely paper-driven — in handling the movements of an average of about 1,500 inmates every day. Some are entering the jail after arrest and others are being bused to courthouses around the county for court appearances.

In his 2002 murder case, Robbins got into a fight with his wife outside a party, prompting Rutland Melton, 24, to intervene, according to Indiana court records. Witnesses said Robbins got a gun from his car and shot Melton once in the chest.

"It was on Mother's Day," Maye Melton said Friday by telephone. "I just hope justice is served and they catch him. He doesn't deserve to be free."

Meanwhile, court records did not indicate that Robbins' arrest warrant was quashed at Wednesday's hearing — the same oversight that played a part in the mistaken release.

When told of that, Dart shook his head and smiled wryly. "I don't know. I haven't even gotten that far yet," he said.